Data Visualization for Visually Impaired

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Most of the data journalism that I create are data visualizations. The hope is that by creating a better character, people who are visually impaired will be able to better relate to that character. So if I instead am trying to show podcasting salaries by race or ethnicity, maybe I'm drawing, you know, hands holding microphones in the height of the microphone indicate salary. Exactly which skin tone am I going to use in the chart to indicate black, Hispanic, white, Asian? But if I play with that in the chart, maybe suddenly the information is actually quite hard to understand.

Whenever we have a question – about ourselves or the world around us – it can be helpful to visualize our answer in order to really understand it. But how do you conceptualize something as big as inequality, as complex as grief, or as silly as your probability of correctly guessing today’s Wordle? For data journalist Mona Chalabi, the answer is through data – and drawing. You’ve probably seen Mona’s illustrations on the internet. She’s known for interpreting data in a way that makes you GET it. In today’s episode, she explains how anyone could use analysis to answer their most personal questions – from whether or not to have a breakup to how many friends you should have. For the text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts